BELARUS NEWS AND ANALYSIS

DATE:

2005-12-14

Belarus deport Polish TV reporter

MOSCOW, Dec. 14 (Xinhuanet) -- Belarus on Wednesday deported a Polish television reporter based in the capital Minsk one day after detaining her at the airport as she tried to return to work,according to reports monitored here.

The incident surrounding Agnieszka Romaszewska is the latest inthe relations between Poland and Belarus, the two eastern Europeanneighbors.

Romaszewska's visa had been canceled earlier and was detained Tuesday as she tried to pass through immigration control at the Minsk-2 airport.

Earlier, a Belarusian Foreign Ministry spokesman said that the authorities were looking into Romaszewska's actions "as a provocation of unfriendly character."

Relations between the neighboring countries have been increasingly tense in recent months.

In Warsaw on Tuesday, Poland's Foreign Ministry summoned Belarus' ambassador to Poland, asking him to explain Minsk's refusing entry to Polish Prime Minister Kazimierz Marcinkiewicz's aide Michal Dworczyk.

Dworczyk said he was turned away Sunday at a border crossing about 200 km northeast of Warsaw.

Polish authorities has repeatedly accused Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko of restricting the freedoms of some 500,000 ethnic Poles in Belarus.

Lukashenko, on the other hand, has accused Poland of encouraging Belarus' Poles to help oust him, with the backing of the European Union and the United States.

Source:

http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2005-12/14/content_3922930.htm

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